


Just Because

by Azurite



Series: Strains [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Oneshot, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-04
Updated: 2007-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29484861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azurite/pseuds/Azurite
Summary: Set after my oneshot Azureshipping fic "Strains," this fic looks into Anzu's mind after an impromptu dance in Domino High's hallways after class with one Seto Kaiba.
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner
Series: Strains [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165685
Kudos: 1





	Just Because

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WinterWing3000](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=WinterWing3000).



> Originally Published: March 4, 2007  
> Published on AO3: February 15, 2021
> 
> Notes: As with "This Wish" for the fic "Family," I had a small handful of oneshots that I wrote as responses to challenges from friends back during my LiveJournal days. For some reason, I never posted those fics to FFnet or anywhere else, so when I rediscovered them this year, I decided I had to post them. However, despite being challenge oneshots related to specific fics, they are oneshot prequels or sequels, rather than new chapters.
> 
> As of 2007, I called Strains "my most 'subtle' Azureshipping piece to date." In fact, one could argue that there's really no Azureshipping in it at all. It just happens to STAR the two of them. You can be the judge after this. Replicating the style of "Strains" is no easy task, let me tell you...
> 
> In any case, I tried to do this one from Anzu's perspective (because Strains was from Seto's).

She hesitated for a bit, before finally going and doing it. Before finally shoving that simple white envelope into the shoe cubby marked for Seto Kaiba. She wondered if he ever checked it- if he ever bothered. He was the type where school rules didn't have to apply to him if he didn't want them to; he was rich enough to persuade the school's faculty to let him off for almost any offense, so wearing outside shoes indoors didn't seem like that big of a deal.

If that were the case, he'd never see the letter. Never know its contents, and never realize...

 _'Oh, stop being stupid.'_ So Anzu shoved the envelope into Seto's locker, knowing she'd done as much as she could, outside of actually WALKING up to Seto Kaiba and handing them to him. But she wasn't sure she had the courage to do that just yet, especially considering what had happened two weeks ago was still a secret between the two of them.

It wasn't as if it was anything IMPORTANT, really- they hadn't embraced, or kissed. (And she was being awfully silly, imagining that they had!) There hadn't even been any racing hearts or dry mouths or anything of the sort- not on Anzu's part, anyway. And because everything Seto Kaiba said or did was covered with an icy sheen of indifference, she couldn't be sure that he had -or hadn't- felt anything, either.

All of that was beside the point, anyway. In the time that had lapsed since Seto Kaiba quite literally strode back into her world -from a detached sort of place where he'd been there, but unimportant- Anzu had strove harder than ever to improve at dancing. She'd kept staying after school, rigging the dean's PA system to play her classical music so she could practice. She even swept the same stretch of the hallway, neglecting other places that needed cleaning. Part of her hoped Seto Kaiba would appear again, but he never did.

Maybe it was because he thought she'd improved enough that first time, that she didn't need anyone's help.

Maybe it was that he hadn't really cared that much at all, and he'd just done it to prove that he was the best at EVERYTHING, even other people's dreams. Dreams that were meaningless to him, after all.

He didn't come because he didn't care. He had bigger and more important things to worry about in his life, Anzu reasoned... but maybe he could make some time to really see that she'd improved. To see that he was right- and that even with the briefest of moments of coaching, he'd made Anzu more determined, more graceful, more balanced.

After that silly dance session in the hall, it seemed too easy: all she had to do was envision Seto Kaiba as her partner, and balance came easily to her. The movements came easily to her, flowing through her as they never had before.

And she wanted him to see it for himself, even if he didn't realize his role in her improvement. Even if he didn't want to take credit for it, and perhaps demand some form of retribution. Maybe in the form of a dinner, or more dancing.

More dancing between the two of them, alone.

Anzu flushed as she stomped away from Seto Kaiba's locker that late afternoon- another afternoon where she'd volunteered to do the cleanup on her own, and meet the boys back at the Game Shop later in the evening. They never questioned why Anzu so readily agreed to do their cleanup for them, and if they knew that Seto Kaiba also occupied the same hall as Anzu, they didn't show any indication of being bothered by it.

If they had the slightest inclination that silent, simple respect for Seto Kaiba had turned into something more, they made no mention.

And as far as Anzu was concerned, all the better. She wasn't even entirely sure what she was feeling, or how a two-week old dancing session in the sunlit halls of Domino High could have brought them on.

But she did know she wanted Seto Kaiba to see her at the upcoming dance recital that she'd been practicing so hard for. And that was why she'd bought the tickets for him and Mokuba, without even asking if they would like to -or even COULD!- go.

And that was why, the day after she'd slipped that simple envelope into his locker, she couldn't help but fidget and stare, as if waiting for some unspoken answer- not just to the tickets and the invitation they implied, but to the words she herself couldn't say, and hardly understood.

When Seto Kaiba at last met her gaze and rose to his feet and began to walk toward her, Anzu's mind flooded with a billion voices (all of them sounding suspiciously like Jounouchi, Honda, and Yuugi) in her head: "Why? Why? Why?" And at last, Anzu had an answer for them all: "Just because."


End file.
